From the Ashes
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1149-1155: Now that Brittany has decided to stay in Boston with Santana, she needs to start rebuilding her life. - TOP 15 cycle: #1. Brittany (Boston Britt series)
1. What She Needs

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 54th cycle. Now cycle 55!_

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_**Favorites cycle** - It's that time again, where I gather a list of my fifteen favorite characters, relationships, friendships, etc of the moment! It's constantly evolving, and if I did it over today, as the list was selected weeks ago, it would already be different. But oh well, there'll be later opportunities ;) So then, here we go!  
**At number 1 - Brittany S Pierce**_

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**"From the Ashes"  
Brittany (+ Santana, Brittana, etc)  
Boston Britt series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_**

**1. What She Needs**

They had been in that apartment together since the night before and up until the time where Brittany had to leave for the train station, so it wasn't like they had been away or apart for too long, and yet… Now that she wasn't just back but had gone and decided to stay, everything looked and felt different to them. This had gone from being Santana's apartment to being… their apartment.

Once they'd gotten through the shock and the joy of being reunited and deciding that she would stay, Brittany had gone and sat on the couch, staring into nowhere. From her face it just seemed like all of it was sinking in at last, and she was realizing what it would all mean. Santana came and sat with her, looking at her for a while, waiting to see… "You alright?" she asked, and Brittany shrugged. "Second thoughts?" Brittany shook her head.

"I don't know what to do," she admitted. "I didn't know before, still don't know now…"

"What were you going to do once you got back to Lima?" Santana asked, and Brittany thought.

"I don't know, go back to school, I guess."

"Okay, well that's one thing right there." Brittany looked back to her. "I'm taking classes so I get my diploma, you can do it, too," she explained, and the blonde sat up.

"Like we'll be in school together again?" The thought of it looked to be the best thing Brittany had heard in a long time, other than the fact that she could stay with Santana.

"Well we'd have to look into it, but you might," Santana nodded. "That's something you should be doing anyway, getting your diploma."

"What if I can't though? I mean I flunked out of…"

"That was different, they wanted too much," Santana told her. "But I know you got better these past few months, and you're going to do just fine in my classes. Better than fine."

"Okay…" Brittany looked to be accepting it, and Santana gave her a smile.

"There, see, now you've got one thing. What else?" she encouraged, and Brittany thought again.

"Well I guess I'll need to get a job so I can have money," she spoke eventually. "I can pay you half the rent and all that," she turned back to Santana.

"Don't worry about that right now," Santana assured her. "What kind of job?" she asked.

"I don't know," Brittany was clueless once more.

"What about… I mean I know it's kind of a rough spot right now, but you could teach dance…" Brittany shook her head immediately.

"No." She said no more, no less, and Santana left it alone.

"Well we'll find you something," she went on. "In the meantime we can manage. So school, work… what else?" she asked, and now the blue eyes turned anguished.

"I have to call my parents. They're supposed to come and get me at the train station…"

"Except you won't be there," Santana continued, and Brittany leaned against her shoulder.

"They're gonna be mad," she stated.

"Maybe… Probably…"

"It's not their fault though, it's mine. I told them I was coming home, and then I changed my mind. They won't speak to me anymore…" she sounded on the verge of a panic attack, and Santana wrapped her arm around her to bring her closer.

"That's not going to happen, okay? Not to you."

"Happened to you…" Brittany had to say, and Santana sighed. "I'm sorry…"

"No, don't… It's true," she shrugged, and now she could feel Brittany holding on to her all the same. She didn't know that this turn of events would exactly help matters with her own parents, more likely it would make it worse, and they'd say this whole madness had gone and wrecked things for the Pierces as well. She wouldn't say any of this to Brittany though. She had plenty on her plate without her having to add the idea that this action would cause her problems with her family.

"Most of my stuff is already going to Lima, maybe they won't send it back."

"We'll deal with that later," Santana told her. "At the worse, we'll get you new things."

"With what money?"

"Like I said, we'll deal with that later." The further they went it just seemed like the picture was getting worse, and Santana didn't want to think about that. She wasn't delusional enough to think that this would all be easy, but she was still just so happy to know she wasn't losing Brittany, and she didn't want to wreck the moment. "You hungry?" she asked, brushing blonde hair from her forehead before pressing her lips to it. Brittany made a noise she interpreted as 'no.' "Tired?" This noise meant 'maybe.' "If you fall asleep, I've got you, okay?" 'Yes.' Within no more than two minutes, Brittany had dozed off.

While she was asleep, Santana had to think. She didn't know if she'd just sleep for twenty minutes or for hours. The minutes were ticking by, and that train was on its way. No one but the two of them knew that Brittany wasn't on it even though she was supposed to be. If her family got to the train station and saw it arrive, unaware of what was happening, it would be worse. She couldn't stop it from here, and in everyone's best interest, she had to do something. Calling them would probably lead to something ugly, so she had to circumvent that.

She'd called Quinn and told her what was happening. If anyone could handle this the way she would have done it, if she was over there, it would be Quinn. She promised she'd keep her posted, and that was it. After she'd hung up, she had looked back down to Brittany, sleeping against her. All she needed was for her mind to be at ease again, and it hadn't been, for so long it seemed. They weren't out of the woods, not yet, but Santana would do her absolute best to get her there. Hopefully a little sleep would give her some much needed relief.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	2. What They Want

___**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: The Fair Collaboration, chapter 6__._

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**"From The Ashes"**

**2. What They Want**

With Brittany asleep against her, she couldn't move. She couldn't get up, not that she wanted to, but there was something she did need to do, and that was to get Brittany's phone from her pocket so she could put it on silent. She knew that at some point either her phone or Brittany's would ring, which would mean that her parents had discovered what was happening. She also knew that a freshly awakened Brittany was about as useful as trying to use a tissue to crush a giant spider, so putting her on the phone as a result of the ringtone waking her up would be a terrible idea. She had already silenced her own phone, now she just needed to get Brittany's.

She was careful as she tried to see… The front pocket on her upward side was a no go, which then sent her to the back pockets, and a cautious prodding brought her nowhere closer, which meant of course she'd have to go fishing for the front pocket on the hip that was under her. Slipping her hand in between them, she frowned, trying to get there and find… She'd aimed too high, which sent her fingers brushing at skin and stirred Brittany from sleep just enough that she'd start to react. "No… Britt, no, not now, I'm not…" Santana startled, quickly getting her hands on the phone. Once she'd gotten Brittany to stop groping, she silenced her phone and laid it next to hers on the other side of the couch and let out a breath.

After a while she'd just started getting drawn in by the position she was in, on the couch, snuggled up to her new roommate, and she was this close to falling asleep along with her… but then she caught something out of the corner of her eye and she looked over to find Brittany's phone screen had lit up with a picture of her mother, which made Santana jerk awake. So now they knew. Her own phone lit up a few seconds later, this one with Quinn's face, but instead of answering she had wrote out a text.

_What happened?_

A few seconds went by before she got Quinn's response: _I did my best. I told them she didn't board the train and she was with you._

Almost on cue, now her phone rang, showing it was from her former coach. She turned both phones over on the couch so she couldn't see the screens and she put her arms back around Brittany, closing her eyes. She wanted to protect her from this, but there was no going around it.

It was an hour more before she felt Brittany awaken, and she looked down to find her staring up. "Hi… Were we…"

"Sorry, that was me, I was trying to get your phone from your pocket," Santana explained, and Brittany started to remember. She sat up, looked around.

"Did my parents…"

"Your mom called, she called both of us actually," Santana explained. "I sent Quinn to intercept them so she could tell them you wouldn't be there."

"Oh…" Brittany cringed. "How bad…"

"You should probably call her back, just… take your time, okay? You know how she'll be…"

"I know," Brittany breathed. She looked scared, and Santana took her hand.

"I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'll be right next to you the whole time," she promised, handing the phone over. Brittany's hand was shaking. "I've got you…"

"You do," Brittany nodded, making the call. There was no way this would go well. She couldn't hear the other side of the conversation… at least not the words. She kind of expected… yelling, absolutely losing it… "Mom, it's me…" Brittany had started. "No, I'm okay," she went on, and Santana bowed her head… She still saw Sue as the coach, not the woman, not the mother… Of course her first concern would be her daughter's well-being. "I know, I was going to, I swear I was, but…" She paused again, and when she did she looked to Santana. She didn't know what her mother had asked, not until she spoke again. "No, I… I'm not. I'm staying in Boston, not coming back. I'll stay w…" Now the voice got louder. "M… Mom… Wait, I…" She turned to Santana, panic rising.

"Breathe," she whispered, holding her hand. She mimed it for her, and Brittany complied.

"I'm going to finish high school, it's not going to be…" she started again, but her mother's voice was overpowering. "Mom, listen," she tried to raise her voice without it coming off like she was shouting or talking back. "No, no, I decided, it was my decision," her voice had taken a new edge now, defensive. Santana bowed her head. Now the coach was blaming her for getting Brittany to stay. "I'm not changing my mind, I…" She sat up, shaking her head. "No, but… Mom, I… O-okay…" When she hung up, she looked at her phone like she had forgotten something, or like she wanted to forget something.

"What'd she say?" Santana asked, while Brittany stood and went to open one of her bags, looking through it and mumbling to herself. "Britt, hey," Santana went to her, crouching by her side. "Hey, talk to me, what happened?" Brittany was still fishing in her bag, frowning, and Santana stopped her hands. Seeing her fret this way, she knew whatever it was, it was scaring her.

"They're gonna do it… they're gonna come and take me home."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	3. What She Loves

**"From The Ashes"**

**3. What She Loves**

After she had told Santana that her parents were on their way in from Lima, she had picked up her bag, started emptying it by taking the things inside and placing them around the apartment. "Brittany, what are you doing?" Santana asked, following after her.

"Moving in," she spoke, sniffled. "I only have some of my things, but this is my apartment too now, right? So if I put my things here, then I'm moved in, and then… then they can't make me go," she had convinced herself, and she nodded along as she went, placing a photo album here, book there…

"Brittany…" she tried again, and the girl looked back at her, hesitant.

"Do you… I can still stay, right?" Santana took the bag from her, put it down, then put her arms around her, rubbing her back.

"We've been through this, the apartment is both of ours. If you want, I'll go to the landlord right now and tell him to add your name to the lease, okay? It's ours. I'll make you pay rent if that convinces you."

"But I don't have any money…" Brittany frowned, and Santana chuckled. "It's not funny."

"It's not, but you are," Santana promised her. "What I'm saying is that I don't want you to go either, and if you tell me you don't want to go, I will back you up. I'm not scared of your mom," she pulled back to look her in the eye, and hearing her laugh was as much of a relief as she could get right now. It didn't last long, as the truth of what was about to happen came back to her.

"If I don't go back though…"

"They'll be upset," Santana agreed. "We can't change that. But this is your chance, to make them see that this is what you need right now. You've been through hell, and going back to Lima right now, going back to McKinley and sitting in those class rooms right now, that'd be the worst thing for you right now. I really believe it, not just saying it because I want you to stay. Okay?" Brittany nodded, mouthing 'okay.' "Okay," Santana repeated.

They had waited hours, not knowing how long it would take before they all showed up, when they would arrive… They had ordered pizza when they got hungry and neither was ready or willing to make anything, and even as they ate, they couldn't help but keep wondering when the bell would ring and they'd have jump into action. When the delivery guy had come, Brittany had nearly lost it.

But then finally the buzzer was heard, and they looked back to each other – this was it. Santana went to open the door, finding Sue Sylvester, Joe Pierce, and his father Joseph. "She's over there," she let them in. Sue was the first through, and when she saw her daughter, standing from the kitchen table, she moved to her, pausing for a moment. Despite how they had left things on the phone, she had started by hugging her. Brittany had been going from dry to tearful eyes again and again throughout the hours, and now she had veered to tears once more.

She had only spoken to her mother before, and she didn't know what to expect from the rest of them. She guessed Charlotte had stayed home with Cat and Izzy, but it was so good to see her father and her grandfather. Their faces were so different in that moment. Her grandfather just looked happy to see her, and like he was feeling conflicted against his son and his granddaughter's mother. And her father… She had never seen him upset, not like this, and it left her unsettled. After letting go of her mother, she had moved up to him, hesitating.

"Do you realize how worried we were?" he asked, staring at her.

"I know, I…"

"No, you don't know. You're…"

"Joe," his father spoke, and seeing his daughter's tear streaked face, Joe sighed and brought her into his arms. "You're coming with us this time, we made a deal, remember?"

"I know, but… I couldn't do it," she looked at him. "And I can't. I told Mom, I'm staying."

"Brittany, we sent you out here because you were going to that school, and when they kicked you out, we let you stay so you could try and land back on your feet, but…" Sue had started to say, and as much as Santana had tried to stay out of it, she had to speak up.

"That's what she's trying to do, don't you get it? You weren't here, you didn't see what getting kicked out of there did to her. I was here, I helped her," she stood tall, just barely not shouting.

"Santana, this isn't your fight, you stay out of it," Sue warned her.

"Let her talk," Brittany cut in, and Sue looked back, surprised.

"Brittany…" she started, but the blonde shook her head.

"I'm going to go to class with Santana," she stated, reining in her tears. "I'm going to get my diploma. And I'm going to get a job. And I'm going to live here, so this is my home, too, and if you don't like it, I'm sorry…"

"We can't just let you…" her father tried again.

"Joe, enough," his father had interrupted, and they all looked to him. "You need to let her stay." The quiet was even heavier now.

"Dad…" Joe shook his head.

"What are you going to do? Drag her back to Ohio? You do that, and what's to say she won't run? You'll lose her, in more ways than one. If you let her stay here, at least you'll know where she is." The argument was solid in the parents' eyes, they could see, and Brittany had never been happier to know that her grandfather had her back.

Neither Joe nor Sue liked the idea of leaving their daughter behind, and having their hand forced by the possibility of things getting worse than they had didn't mean that they had to like it, not even a little. When they had left the apartment, they had barely said one more word to Brittany. She had gotten one more hug, from her grandfather, and then they were gone, leaving only the two girls.

In the silence once again, it had taken a moment for them to adjust, but Santana could see Brittany was stuck somewhere between relief and a worse pain than before. They had let her stay, but at what cost?

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	4. What We Have

___**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: Padra's Run, chapter 6__._

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**"From The Ashes"**

**4. What We Have**

Despite the fact that her parents and her grandfather had left, Brittany had thought maybe they would return that night, or they would stay at a hotel and come back to see her in the morning, so she had stayed up for a while, waiting… To Santana she looked like a puppy, lost and confused. She had made her stand, as she had before, but as always, whatever strength she was able to present before her parents, once they were gone she was still that girl she had been, terrified of letting people down.

It was after four in the morning by the time Santana had convinced her to go to bed, and only exhaustion had succeeded to let her let go enough to sleep again. When morning had come and they woke up again, Santana wasn't sure if they had just woken up at just about the same time or if Brittany had just been awake with her eyes closed until Santana would wake up as well.

"Did they come?" was the first thing Brittany asked, and Santana sighed, putting her arm around her and curling up to her.

"Britt, I don't think they stayed." The blonde looked over. "If they did, wouldn't they have told you where they were staying?" she pointed out, and Brittany knew that was true. That meant that her family had gone home, and then…

She looked so defeated, still so exhausted. Every part of her was telling her that she should stay, and she would, no going back. Still she couldn't let go of the thought that going back might be the only way to fix things with her family. Santana hated to see her cry, at any time. But these last few weeks had been so filled with her tears, and she couldn't take it, feeling powerless to help her, even though she was doing everything in her power to make it happen.

"Do you need me to do anything?" she asked her. In response, Brittany had turned to face her, and now she was the one curled up to Santana.

"I don't know. Nothing makes it all better, no matter what, I lose something. My family, the school, the dancing… you…"

"You haven't lost all of those," Santana told her. "Me especially."

"No, I know, that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

"You asked if you could do anything. I thought at first 'Can you make it so I never went to that school?' but then I thought about what that would mean."

"Sounds to me like it'd be a pretty good deal. You wouldn't have met that psycho Maurizio, you and your family would be okay, you'd still be dancing…"

"But I wouldn't have you," Brittany cut her off.

"What? Yeah you would," Santana frowned.

"Look at us…" Brittany shook her head with a tentative smile.

She didn't have to, at this point. They were good and stuck together, tangled… If either of them moved at all, the other would feel it, if either of them breathed… Now Santana knew what Brittany had meant by 'having her.' She had told her this when she'd shown back up on her doorstep the day before, how she didn't just want their hooking up to be a thing they did sometimes, because of some special occasion, the way it had been since Santana had come to Boston. Before Brittany had left, their relationship had been something else entirely, covered in confusion and lacking the confidence it had found here. And when Santana had said she could stay with her, it meant accepting that this was where they were, the point they had reached.

"Okay, maybe you're right," she had smiled, and Brittany nodded. "You're right," she corrected.

"I don't want you to make it so I never went there, because it would mean no you and I, and that would be worse than… anything I've been through."

"You keep this up, I'm going to start crying this time," Santana had to laugh to defuse the tension.

"But I mean it," Brittany insisted, which earned her a kiss. "I know that I don't need to say that I need you now, that I can't let you go, because I know you'll say that I've got you. So I don't need you to change it."

"You do know I can't actually change history, right?" Santana pointed out.

"So it all works out… That part anyway," Brittany nodded, breathed out. "What about the rest of it?" The subject had turned back to her family situation, and it took away the momentary joy along with it. So Santana had to make a decision. She didn't have to ask Brittany what she needed to do in order to help her; she already knew.

"This is what's going to happen," she sat up, pulling for Brittany to sit up as well. "We're going to get up, shower, have breakfast… not at the same time… Then we're going to get dressed and start figuring things out for you. That includes getting you sorted out so you can start classes with me, and then looking for a job. We're going to get you clothes and other things…"

"How?" Brittany frowned.

"Rainy day fund," Santana shrugged, then, "Don't look outside, I know it's sunny," she instructed, and Brittany bowed her head, immediately to be raised up again by Santana. "I said I'd take care of you, didn't I?" she smiled. "Once you've got a job of your own, you can pay me back or not, I won't keep a tally. The point is… You are not going to spend the rest of your life being sad, because it makes me sad, too. It's high time that life did you a solid, and it starts today."

If there were tears in Brittany's eyes now, the smile that accompanied them told Santana that they were happy tears. They both knew that the next little while would not be without its difficulties, but they had made a turn, right then and there, and they'd decided. The misery days were gone.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	5. What She Gets

**"From The Ashes"**

**5. What She Gets**

It had been days since Brittany had moved into the apartment, now well referred to as their apartment. And for how many days had passed, that was also how many days it had been since she had spoken to anyone back in Lima. For her part, she didn't dare call yet, unsure if she was ready to hear what they had to say. She also didn't want to risk getting in the way of whatever thinking they might have been doing, so she kept her distance. As a whole she found that process a painful one, but her life had expanded since the last time she'd spoken to them, and as Santana and her had vowed to one another, they had gotten right to work in getting Brittany the life she needed.

She would be starting her classes within weeks, and as nervous as the thought of going back to school made her, after the way things had ended at her dance school, she did want to go back. She had worked hard to improve herself, and maybe that hadn't been enough for them, but that was their problem, not hers anymore. Knowing that not everything she had accomplished there would go to waste, it had lifted her spirits in ways she hadn't expected. Santana could see the difference, too.

The job search was a bit harder, although as the summer was upon them they might have had a bigger chance. Her status did keep her from certain options, but they didn't see this as a problem. And then Santana had come in with the perfect solution.

"I got you a job," she announced, and Brittany sat up.

"What? Where?" she asked, and Santana presented her with a uniform, the same as the one she wore to work at the diner. "Do you want me to… wash it?" Brittany asked, confused, and Santana smirked.

"I want you to wear it," she revealed, and Brittany gave her a look. "No, not like that… Well, maybe not…" she shook her head, getting back to the point. "I asked, and apparently I must really be needed there, because after all the unexplained absences and bad excuses, they haven't fired me, and when I told them I had a very capable friend looking for work, they agreed to hire you."

"I… I'm the very capable friend?" Brittany was shocked. "But I've never been a waitress."

"Neither had I, before I started there, not that I told them that," Santana explained. "Haven't we always done wonders in matching outfits?" she smirked, and Brittany laughed.

"Are you sure I can do this?"

"It's easy," Santana promised her. "And anyway I'll be there to help you if you need me. You'll be in training the first couple of weeks, but you'll pick it up quick, I'm sure."

Two days later, Brittany was starting her job at the diner. In the time between the moment she'd received her uniform and the moment she had put it on to go to work, she would insist on doing practice runs when they were at home, doing anything from taking orders, to dealing with problem customers. Her biggest concern was dealing with the cash register, and it had renewed her burning passion for math, even if this was solely about giving change.

"What if I'm no good?" Brittany had asked as they were on their way to the diner.

"Not going to happen," Santana shook her head.

"Okay, but what if I am?"

"Britt…" Santana frowned, and she let it go, picking at the bottom of her skirt.

"It really does feel like back in the Cheerios," she smiled.

"Yeah, except for the pom-poms, the crazy exercises, crazier diets, and craziest of all…" Santana stopped herself, as she knew where she'd been headed, and she didn't want to bring up Brittany's mother, not on that day. The blonde hadn't even registered it, and Santana thanked her stars on that one.

They had reached the diner, and thus the day began. Brittany was both overly anxious and nervous about being there, but then as soon as she'd actually started to work, the worries had crawled away. She had gotten into the rhythm of things, so much so that Santana would just look at her in wonder. After being a waitress for hours, she looked like she'd been doing it for ages. She had always said that Brittany was brighter than she or anyone else would give her credit for, and it was in moments like these that it showed even more.

When her first day was over, she was still energized, ready to keep going when most everyone else just wanted to get home already. Santana watched her, and she just smiled. Brittany had been reborn, still with her battle scars, but all the same… The dark cloud had cleared from over her head, and it was sunny skies all over again. She had made a turn and she wasn't going back.

Finally they had arrived back home, and the uniforms had been put away in favor of comfier clothes. It had been a hot day, and they would need to clean both uniforms if they expected to wear them again the next day. Santana had taken them to the washing machines in the basement, loading them in before climbing back up to their floor. They were going to watch a movie while they waited on the load.

"I thought you were going to make popcorn," Santana reminded Brittany as she closed the door, not smelling anything that smelled like corn or butter. Instead she had found Brittany with the phone in her hand. "What?" Santana asked wearily.

"I missed a call," Brittany explained.

"Your parents?" Santana asked, coming over, and Brittany shook her head.

"My sisters."

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)


	6. What They Lost

___**This is a double shift day.** There will be one more upload today: Technicolor Wishes & Hi-Def Dreams, chapter 6__._

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**"From The Ashes"**

**6. What They Lost**

After her parents' visit, Brittany had wanted to call home and talk to her sisters. As much as having to see the anger and disappointment in her parents' eyes had hurt, she knew there was something worse out there, and it was having to tell Cat and Izzy that she wasn't coming home. The thought of how excited they would have been to have her back had been one of the biggest reasons for her to anticipate her return. But then she hadn't gone home. She was staying in Boston, with Santana…

She wanted to call them, but everything had happened so fast, with the decision, then her parents coming to take her back and finally letting her stay… She knew that decision had not been made lightly, that they were still extremely upset with her, but then they had gone home and there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn't just go to Lima, and then the fear of making things worse with her parents kept her from calling.

At the very least she would have thought they would call or write earlier, but nothing had come, so as much as she was putting on a positive face, there was still that concern working at the back of her mind.

Now this call had come in, and she didn't know what to do with it. Santana could see the terror all over her face, and she'd come toward her. "How long ago did they call?"

"I d…" Brittany looked down. "Like ten minutes ago," she read from her phone.

"Call them back," Santana nodded.

"I-I…" she hesitated, and Santana put her hand over hers.

"It's fine. You want to talk to them, don't you?" Brittany nodded. "So here's your chance." She still hesitated. "Do you want me to stay?" Brittany nodded again, and she put in the call.

"Hello?" Cat had answered, and Brittany breathed out.

"Hey, it's me…"

"Is it true?" were Cat's next words, and Brittany frowned in confusion.

"Is what true?"

"You're not coming back. Dad just told us." Brittany looked to Santana, more confused than ever, and Santana quietly asked her what was going on.

"He just told you about it now?" she asked Cat, and now Santana understood.

"Yeah," Cat confirmed. "So it's true?" Brittany's throat felt tight, but she had to answer her.

"It's true. I'm staying in Boston, I moved into Santana's ap…"

"But you said you were coming back," Cat cut her off, upset, and Brittany wished they were in the same room, to hug her. Then she could hear Izzy in the background, and she swore she could hear her crying, which made things worse.

"I know, but I couldn't do it… We'll still see each other when we can, and…"

"No, you were supposed to come back!" Cat cried back, and then there was a thump like she'd put the phone down, followed by silence.

"Cat? Are you still there?" Brittany felt like she was choking. "Cat?" Another noise came and then…

"Brittany?" Her breaths returned unevenly.

"Izzy, hey… Where'd Cat go?"

"She just left, do you want me to go after her?" her youngest sister asked, and Brittany would have given anything to be there with her, both of them.

"In a minute, okay? I want to talk to you, too." She could hear the littlest Pierce girl sniffling, and it broke her heart all over again. "You know I love you, right? Both you and Cat."

"I know," Izzy replied.

"And you know how much I miss you, right?"

"But if you miss us, why can't you come back?" Izzy asked.

It had been so hard on her to have to choose, feeling like she would be abandoning her family and her friends, but the hardest had been her sisters, being so young still. She had only really known them for about a year by the time she had come to Boston, but from the start they had lived to make up for the years they hadn't known about one another. Her departure had been a tough blow on the girls, aged twelve and seven at the time, but it had gone through on the promise that it was temporary. She would come back. Only now she wasn't… She had broken her promise.

"Because… Because if I come back now then it'll be like I went for nothing. I left so I could make something happen, and it didn't… not yet anyway. And I need to keep trying. Do you understand?" she asked, almost begging.

"I think so," the now eight-year-old Izzy had replied.

"I love you, both of you, so, so much, that hasn't changed, I promise."

"I love you, too," Izzy replied, though she still sounded like she had some crying in her. "You're going to visit us, right?"

"I am," Brittany nodded vigorously, even if Izzy couldn't see her.

"When?" she asked, and now she was back to the hard part.

"I don't know, maybe not for a while, but probably sometime this summer, okay?"

"Okay," she sounded disappointed. "Want me to go check where Cat went?"

"Can you?" Brittany begged.

"Be right back," the phone was put down again, and Brittany looked back to Santana. She didn't have to say a thing, she could see it all on her face. It took over a minute before Izzy returned, and the wait had already been agonizing, but the answer made it worse. "Brittany?" Izzy came back on the line. "Cat can't come to the phone… She has to go to bed." Her face trembled.

"She doesn't want to talk to me, does she?" she had figured, and Izzy's silence told her everything she needed to know. "I-It's okay, you should go to bed, too," she tried to sound like she was okay, so Izzy wouldn't feel worse.

"Okay… I love you, Brittany," her baby sister told her, and it brought a quick smile back to her face.

"Love you, too, Izzy… Good night."

As soon as she'd hung up, Santana had hugged her close, and Brittany allowed herself to break. She hadn't realized just how much she'd hung on Cat and Izzy's reactions, not until she'd had to face the fact that she may have lost one of them. "She'll come around," Santana would whisper in a promise as she held her, and she tried to listen to her, to let the words become her reality. They had started an up turn in the past week, and they couldn't be dragged back down.

TO BE CONCLUDED (TOMORROW)


	7. What We Want

**"From The Ashes"**

**7. What We Want**

A week had passed since Brittany had spoken to her sisters. Since then there had still been no contact, one way or the other, between Boston and Lima. Brittany looked resigned to let some time go by, let the dust settle, as Santana would say. She couldn't bear much more heartbreak.

Having Santana there had been the surest cure there could ever be to make sure that she had a reason to be happy. They would go to work together, and Brittany could see that just as much as having the job was helping her, the fact that she was there and they were working together had given Santana new love for her waitress position. It wasn't like waitressing was her life's passion all of a sudden, far from that, but there was something about having Brittany to back her up that made it far less of a chore to last through the day.

To say there had been no contact wasn't quite right. Three days after she'd spoken to her sisters, a number of boxes had been delivered to the apartment. They held Brittany's belongings, the ones she had shipped home back when she was still supposed to go. They were accompanied with a note from her grandfather, saying he thought she might need these. She knew that he was still on her side, although it was particularly difficult for him in that it brought back memories of how he and her father had fallen out of touch for over twenty years, and now he was seeing the rift being created between his son and his granddaughter, like history repeating.

Now Brittany had more to add to the apartment, their apartment, and it had begun to feel like home, not just Santana's apartment but both of theirs. If they had been padding their way around titles and statuses, there was no doubt left. They were together, girlfriends and roommates.

That night they had called dinner in and gone to sit on the fire escape, letting what little breeze there was in the summer air find them. "We should really invest in air conditioning," Santana sighed as she came through with the bag and handed one container to Brittany.

"It's not so bad," she shrugged, and Santana stared at her in complete disbelief. "I like our showers," she gave her a scrunched up smirk, and now Santana laughed.

"Leave it to you to find the bright side."

They had found silence for a while, eating up after a long day at work. Santana would look at Brittany, finding her more and more lost in thought. She would stare out at the city, what she could see of it, but her eyes looked so far away, like they were staring all the way to Lima. She hadn't really brought up the subject all week, and she didn't want to. She still had the temptation to ask her if she was sure, if she didn't want to go back home and try to work things out with her family. Brittany knew already that, if she went or not, she would never be upset with her, not about this. But she had stated it before, more than once, and she was certain she wanted to stay. So Santana didn't have to ask about that. It was both past and present. For now the only thing they could look to was the future.

"What do you want to do later?" Santana had asked. Brittany looked at her, mid bite, and she chewed and swallowed, thinking.

"I thought we were going to have a shower?"

"No, no… Well, yes… But I don't mean later today, just… later, you know, after we get our diplomas and all that."

"Oh," now she understood, and she thought again. "I don't know… I always thought I'd be dancing, with Sherry Weston's company… That was kind of the plan."

"Maybe it's time we found a new plan, for both of us," Santana told her. Brittany stood, moving so they could be sat side by side, looking up at the sky. "I could really do with a shooting star right now…" Santana breathed.

"What if we went somewhere else? We could leave Boston." Santana turned her eyes to look at her.

"Where would you want to go?" she asked, and Brittany shrugged.

"I'd like it if we weren't so far that it made it impossible to go home, to Lima… if we ever get to talk to them again, I mean." The fact that the sadness only barely grazed her and didn't stick to her was proof enough that she was starting to recover, and Santana was relieved by it. So she considered their options.

"Well, if we get to choose this time, I gotta say… New York sounds interesting." Brittany met her eyes with a smile. "Like the sound of that?"

"Yeah," Brittany nodded.

"And, you know, there's every possibility that if we went there we could end up having a few friends handy." Brittany looked about ready to ask her who Andy was, so she continued. "Rachel is all but guaranteed to end up there, maybe Kurt, too, who knows who else… Would be nice to have some familiar faces around."

"Then we should do it," Brittany declared.

"Hold on, don't start packing yet. Like I said, we have to finish with school here first, not to mention we'll need money to make this happen."

"But that's okay, because we have time to earn it while we're still in school and working at the diner," Brittany understood.

"Exactly," Santana told her, and she was presented with a hand. "What are you doing?"

"We have to shake on it, promise. When we have our diplomas and we have the money, we're going to move to New York." Santana looked at her, blue eyes full of hope and fire all over again, and she planted her hand in hers.

"It's a promise," she told her, squeezing her hand. They didn't know what would happen with both of their families, but if there was one thing that was for sure, it was that they would rise up, both of them, always hand in hand, always together.

THE END


End file.
